Elena Kagan Makes The Cut For The U.S. Supreme Court

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as the 112th Supreme Court justice. She will be the fourth woman to serve on our nation’s highest court. She is the second justice nominated by President Obama since he took office 19 months ago. Kagan took her oath on Saturday from Chief Justice John Roberts. She will begin her term in October.

I have to take my hat off to Ms. Kagan. They called her a potentially activist judge, inexperienced, and came close to belittling her work. Pundits and some lawmakers made it seem like she walked in off the street to use the White House’s restroom and asked to be a Supreme Court justice. Not so.

She was the first woman to hold the position of Solicitor General of the United States. It’s one of the most powerful positions in the entire Justice Department. They oversee all government litigation that makes it to the Supreme Court. She was dean of Harvard Law School and even clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the 1980’s.

But, that wasn’t good enough for the 37 senators that voted against her nomination. There were whispers in the wind that she was a lesbian, which Kagan claims is untrue. They tried every avenue they could to belittle her. She received the lowest ‘yes’ votes of any Supreme Court nominee in the past three presidencies AND the lowest number ever by a Democratic nominee.

Still, Kagan pressed on to join the court when the naysayers thought otherwise. Now I hope she rules against every issue they support just to make them mad! Congrats Elena!!